David M. “Dave” Cote (born July 19, 1952) is an American businessman, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Honeywell, a large American multinational conglomerate. Before Honeywell, Cote worked for General Electric and TRW. He was on the risk committee of JP Morgan Chase during the period in which the company lost $2 billion in credit derivative trading.
Cote was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, and graduated from Pembroke Academy, New Hampshire. In 1976, he graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Cote joined General Electric in November 1979, where he worked for twenty years. In 1985, an unexpected meeting with CEO Jack Welch became the catalyst for his advancement at GE. Welch promoted Cote three management levels, and he progressed through a series of roles in manufacturing, finance, marketing, strategic planning, and general management. He became senior corporate vice president and president and CEO of GE Appliances in 1996.
Honeywell selected Cote as successor to Lawrence Bossidy, following AlliedSignal’s acquisition of Honeywell and the European Union’s rejection of the Honeywell–General Electric merger.
On February 19, 2002, Cote was elected president, CEO, and member of the board of directors at Honeywell. After Bossidy retired as chairman in July 2002, Cote was elected chairman of the board. While serving as CEO of Honeywell International in 2014, Cote received total compensation of US$21,931,769, which included a base salary of $1,865,769, an annual bonus of $5,500,000, and $9,816,000 in stock options.
In June 2016, it was announced that Cote would step down as CEO of Honeywell at the end of March 2017. He would be succeeded by Darius Adamczyk. Cote would continue as executive chairman until April 2018.